CIR 2010 CONVENTION: Delegates Celebrate An Unprecedented Year
Guests Include the Deputy Surgeon General, Physicians from Across the Globe, and Hip-hop Celebrity DJ Spinderella
Health care reform. Hospital closures. The earthquake in Haiti. Exciting new leadership for the union. Recounting a year full of challenges and triumphs in the areas of collective bargaining, new organizing, and patient advocacy through political action.
These were the themes as over 160 CIR delegates from across the country came to Philadelphia to participate in CIR’s National Convention from May 21-23, 2010.
The national convention is an annual opportunity for housestaff leaders to make critical decisions on the direction of the union and also benefit from educational workshops and discussions on how to be more effective negotiators, organizers and advocates. This year, resident physicians not only compared notes with their fellow members from other states, but international guests as well, including residents from Quebec, Ontario, the Bahamas, and New Zealand.
"You don't have to go to far-flung parts of the world to find huge disparities in health care," said Acting Deputy Surgeon General Dr. David Rutstein, who delivered the keynote speech. Dr. Rutstein relayed his decades of experience as a family medicine physician, working as far away as Micronesia, where he was a National Health Service Corp physician, and closer to home in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. After his address, Dr. Rutstein fielded questions about mental health parity, the primary care shortage, and other challenges of health care implementation. Dr. Rutstein urged residents to be involved in the discussion at the national and state level as the new reform law is translated into action between now and 2014.
Workshops and plenary sessions covered the topics of resident wellness, health disparities, and how to run campaigns to win union recognition and contracts in difficult times. Training workshops on Saturday
focused on how to be an effective delegate, how to negotiate a strong contract, how to tell if your hospital is in trouble, and how to address bullying within residency programs. On Sunday morning, delegates heard from resident leaders at University of New Mexico, Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Brooklyn, NY, and Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, CA about their successful campaigns to form CIR chapters. They explained how individual complaints grew into something bigger and motivated them to organize and demand a voice in the hospital.
"I spent months trying to get rid of cockroaches in the call room. It was demeaning," said Dr. Tiffany Pierce, chair of the negotiating committee at Kern Medical Center. "Then they tried to take away our food, and a hungry resident is an angry resident."
The national convention is also the place where official business takes place impacting CIR's policies and goals for the next year. The House of Delegates approved the annual budget and a constitutional amendment allowing dues to be phased in gradually in situations where a new chapter has won a first contract with no economic gains, due to the unprecedented economic crisis facing most counties and states. The delegates also voted to renew Executive Director Eric Scherzer’s contract for an additional three years.
It was a bittersweet weekend for many CIR members, who had to say goodbye to several veteran members of the executive committee, including Dr. Luella Toni Lewis, who served as CIR President for two and a half years. Dr. Lewis and the members of the 2009-2010 Executive Committee were sent off in style with a dance and karaoke party on Saturday night featuring DJ Spinderella of Salt-N-Pepa fame. Finally, the uncontested candidates for the new executive board of CIR were sworn in at the end of the convention.
For more information, read the statements of the new Executive Committee for CIR.